I've always wondered if certain games would lose their playability over a prolonged period of time, and the surprising thing is that despite our Street Fighters, our Virtua Fighters, etc. being rendered unplayable, there are still games that one can pop in today and still enjoy.

Guardian Heroes: 10 years, and it's still a very playable title. While there have been many great stat-brawlers like X-men Legends II and Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance, they fail to capture the precision of this title. By limiting themselves to three 2d planes, Treasure was able to create a game that rewarded players for executing elegant combos and punished button mashers (unless you played as the oh-so-cheap Kanon Grey, or Sword Han)...

Starcraft: Will it ever die? I'm sure it will when Starcraft II comes out, but seeing how it's retained such a dedicated fanbase despite games like the Age of Empires II and Red Alert II: Yuri's Revenge, and Warcraft III, it's safe to say Starcraft will be around for awhile.

Diablo II: With so much stuff to kill, and stuff to kill with, this game is truly the awesomeness.

Quake 2/Half-Life/etc: I'm not sure if I should put these in for while the main games are boring nowadays, the mods for it are truly awesome. Remember RocketQuake, which turned Quake 2 into an aerial combat game? Action Quake? What about Firearms Half-Life? etc?

Goldeneye 64/Perfect Dark: Eh? Here's a weird set; the having only a single analog stick on the N64 controller was annoying, but fast-foward to the days of console emulation, and now one can map a single dual-analog controller (or the mouse and keyboard) to allow one more precision when it comes to aiming. In Perfect-Dark's setup, I am able to macro a single button to press both B and Z making it a LOT easier to do Alternate fire on weapons.

EDIT: Man was I in a haste, that I forgot to mention Contra: Hard Corps. It is a classic who's greatness wouldn't be challenged until much later when SNK created the oh-so-awesome Metal Slug 3.

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	janus - June 28, 2006 (10:10 AM) The great thing about Goldeneye and Perfect Dark is that the only true fault is the lack of a second analogue stick. Get past that and they're both timeless. I don't think Street Fighter II has aged that much, although I never really played it to death like Goldeneye and other older games. I'm looking forward to its appearance on Xbox Live, especially considering how much I suck at 3D fighters.
	magicjuggler - June 28, 2006 (02:37 PM) As for Street Fighter II, I see little reason to play it since Capcom vs. SNK 2 has pretty much rendered it obsolete.
	gladiator_x - July 07, 2006 (09:50 AM) I felt like perfect dark didn't suffer too much from a lack of a second analog stick. Of course, back in those days, I really needed all the auto-aim I could get. It was a bitch when you were fighting those midgety space aliens.